Below is a guest post from our friend Marc Keys at castironknowledge, the best strength coach we know. He’s not flashy, doesn’t claim you can get ‘ripped in 4 weeks’ and doesn’t speak in hyperbole, which isn’t something the likes of PropaneFitness readers would fall for anyway. If you haven’t seen already, here’s his bench press program.
Marc now has a YouTube Channel of exercise tutorials and Q&A, as well as a video log on our forum.
Marc in his natural habitat
Tip 1 – Food is your friend
Everyone has been told at one stage in their gym life that they need to consume more calories to grow and get bigger, you’re aware of it… then why are you not doing it? You’re not special – if you’re not getting heavier or stronger then you’re not doing something right. For the assumption of this tip we’re going to address your lack of calorie intake. What’s the plan of action? If you find you can’t get any heavier, apply the following easy 3 step plan.
Keep a food diary for a week and weigh yourself every morning
Next week, eat everything in that diary x 2 if on Monday you had 2 Weetabix for breakfast this week you’re having 4, if you have 2 ham sandwiches for lunch on Wednesday, you guessed it you’re having 4 this week. Again weight yourself every morning.
Now look at yourself in the mirror, realise you’ve gained weight easily and start eating properly.
flickr: bild01
Tip 2 – Pump up the volume
Hypertrophy is essentially a response to a volume of work done to this end you need to do quite a lot of sets and reps to get bigger in the gym. This is why the lord god Zeus invented the machine weight. Here is a simple programme you can add into your weekly free weight routine that will help to boost your muscle growth:
Upper body supplemental work out to be performed 2x a week with a weight where you feel your muscles fatiguing on the last set – 60 seconds rest between sets.
Monday and Wednesday
Lat pull down – 5×10
Low Cable Row – 5×10
Cable Fly – 5×10
Cable Side to Front Raise – 5×10
Tricep Pushdown – 5×10
Cable Curl – 5×10
Lower body supplemental work out to be performed 2x a week with a weight where you feel your muscles fatiguing on the last set – 60 seconds rest between sets.
Tuesday and Thursday
Single Leg Press – 5×10
Leg Curl – 5×10
Leg Extension – 5×10
Calf Raise – 5×10
Tip 3 – Barbells are for System Stress
The first exercise in your routine every day should be an exercise you expect to be barely able to move away from because you have gone so hard on it. These exercises are compound barbell exercises and for the reasons of muscle growth these are to be done to failure! If you’re not going to failure with increasing heavier weights, or with more reps on the same weight, you’re not going to be doing much growing. This part of your training programme is and always will be the most important.
A good routine I have used with great success is a simple pyramid.
Set 1 -Weight x 12 reps (if you achived reps add 2.5 kg next session for upper body and 5kg for lower body)
Set 2 -Weight x 10 reps (if you achived reps add 2.5 kg next session for upper body and 5kg for lower body)
Set 3 -Weight x 8 reps (if you achived reps add 2.5 kg next session for upper body and 5kg for lower body)
Set 4 -Weight x 6 reps (if you achived reps add 2.5 kg next session for upper body and 5kg for lower body)
Example Exercises to choose
Chest – Barbell benchpress / incline bench press / decline bench press
Shoulders – Military Press seated or standing
Back – Chest supported Barbell Row / T bar row
Legs – Squat / Deadlift / Trap Bar Deadlift / Front Squat
Biceps – Chin Up (partial ROM)
Tricep – Close grip bench / Dips
Make your first exercise set the tone for the rest of your session by throwing yourself into it with 100% intensity.
Tip 4 – Get a good pair of earphones and listen to some horrible music
When I am about to go into an all out set of Squat/Deadlift/Bench press, I like to listen to some terribly aggressive music at ear bleed levels of volume. I usually end up having 2 or 3 songs that I like to jam to. My current 3 favourites are
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oC5ecWH8QgM
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y4pOIndfTzI
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=P3oBZ4_TNys
It’s obviously down to personal taste, but you need to find some music you can zone out, get aggressive to, and push yourself to the point where your body just can’t push any more. If you learn how to push yourself to the point your muscles stop working your going to make some mo’ gainz.
Tip 5 – Organise your training so you don’t end up injured
If you’re training with the correct intensity then the goal of your programming is to stop yourself from getting injured from all the hard/intense training you’re going to be doing. The ideal programme for bodybuilding is the one that let’s you end your muscles’ shit week in, week out, without injuring yourself. As a general rule of thumb you need:
24 hours of recovery for an easy session (machine volume work)
48 hours recovery for a medium session (dumbbells to failure)
72+ hours recovery for a hard session (barbells to failure)
The best split that I have used is a simple upper / lower split keeps it simple and let’s you put work in every week and recover.
Sample using above tips might look like:
Monday
Back Squat – 12 x failure / 10 x failure / 8 x failure / 6 x failure
Dumbell walking lunge – 4×8
Lower body supplemental work out
Tuesday
Bench Press – 12 x failure / 10 x failure / 8 x failure / 6 x failure
Incline DB Press – 4×8
Upper body supplemental work out
Wednesday – Off (maybe some easy conditioning)
Thursday
Deadlift – 12 x failure / 10 x failure / 8 x failure / 6 x failure
Dumbell reverse lunge – 4×8
Lower body supplemental work out
Friday
Chin Up partial ROM – 12 x failure / 10 x failure / 8 x failure
Close Grip Press – 12 x failure / 10 x failure / 8 x failure
DB shoulder press – 4×8
Upper body supplemental work out
Weekend off or some easy conditioning work.
Hopefully some of these tips can help you look a big bigger in the new year!
Marc.